


Standing At The Sky's Edge

by McAntiLoughlin



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: A strong drink is recommended, Definitely not you that's for sure, F/F, F/M, M/M, Might have lived with the Pasta's previously, Multi, Panic Attacks, Past Jeff/EJ, Reader goes balistic, Reader has a past they can't remember very well, Slow Build, Someone make some more please, Sorry Not Sorry, There aren't enough male reader inserts out there, You scare the SHIT out of everyone, You should really get something to drink, reader is a male, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 21:38:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McAntiLoughlin/pseuds/McAntiLoughlin
Summary: Darkness, while something terrible and to be feared, was also breath taking. It was full of possibilities and mystery in the way it swirled like a whirl pool and hid you from the rest of the world. The way it could be cold and warm at the same time depending on what it decided to show you. The darkness was like a brilliant child that way. It could show you the starry night sky, full of super novas and galaxies not yet reached by man, left to be pure for centuries to come, possibly never to be tainted by the likes of man, or it could hide the most horrific sight's such as rabid wolves, looking for a quick and easy meal, or the monster's of your imagination. It could hide you from those thing's like a child hides it's most precious toy or crayon from an adult bent on taking it away.





	1. Seek

ONE

Darkness, while something terrible and to be feared, was also breathe taking. It was full of possibilities and mystery in the way it swirled like a whirlpool and hid you from the rest of the world. The way it could be cold and warm at the same time depending on what it decided to show you. The darkness was like a brilliant child that way. It could show you the starry night sky, full of super nova's and galaxies not yet reached by man, left to be pure for centuries to come, possibly never to be tainted by the likes of man, or it could hide the most horrific sites such as rabid wolves, looking for a quick and easy meal, or the monsters of your imagination. It could hide you from those things like a child hides its most precious toy or crayon from an adult bent on taking it away.

The light while something beautiful and bright was also cruel. The way the scorching sun could burn you and give you a way to human's. The way it despised you tainting its beauty with your darkness. The way it ate away at the shadows you hid in, just so it could expose you for the demon you truly are. You hated the sun almost as much as you hated the son of a bitch who turned you into what you are now, just before you killed him from the excruciating pain you had undergone during your transformation.

When you turned it had been painstakingly slow. You could feel you bones growing underneath all your excess skin, causing some of them to break and crack and reform into longer, and denser versions of themselves. Your (s/t ) skin burned as it paled into a sickly shade of white. A white so pure and clear of scars and blemishes that it looked like a fresh winter's snowfall. 

You let out a howl and arched your back while every last one of your teeth turned into needle point canines ready to sink into someone's flesh to taste their coppery wine that sustained their petty lives. The man in the shadows drinking your blood from your wrist smirked when he felt your body convulse under the sting of a knife like pain running through your veins at that very moment. When you flinched your once (e/c) eyes open, they darted everywhere among the dimly lit warehouse, plunging everything into a state of panic as your now blood red eyes glowed blindly.

Even now you could still hear that man's words trying to comfort and calm you. Echoing in the back of your mind, 

"Soon my dearest, you shall roam the night with me. And then we can finally be together for all eternity, just like I've always wanted." 

But that demon's "dream" as he called it would never come to pass as you pounced on top of his dark form, hissing in both anger and agony. Your grip alone around his neck caused it to snap, efficiently silencing him forever before sinking your teeth into him and sucking out that wondrous wine.

Your gaze drifted up from where you stood in the dark alleyway up to the moon. That shadow man never did tell you anything. Which made you wonder why he did this to you? Why you? Why not some helpless girl without a family or friends to miss her? Why not some girl without a promising future he wouldn't have to crush and dreams to be shattered? Why you of all people, did you have to become some sort of demon, having to go out every night just to drink people's life wine?

The star's light's glittered in your gaze as you backed further into the darkness of the shadows. Your gaze then returned back down onto the dirty, littered ground of the alley as a small puddle of blood began seeping outwards toward your boot clad feet, ultimately being sucked up by some unknown force, into your slim being as you fed on the sin and shadows the now dead man possessed. He wasn't anything special, to you that was. Just some homeless, drunk creep preying on poor girls to do with what he pleased. 

Oh you had watched him do the horrible, unspeakable things to the drugged girls from the shadows. But you weren't obligated to stop him. Oh no, it wasn't your job in the slightest. In fact, the more sin he did, the merrier seeing as it fed you and made you stronger in a sense. You let a disgusted growl out from deep in your chest as you kicked the body further out into the street, and away from you.

"Disgusting filth..." you let out a sigh as you made your way out of the alley, pulling your black and (f/c) striped hood on over your shaggy black hair, and making your way to the nearest bar to get something to drink besides 'wine'.

The moon illuminated your path as you strode down the street, passing by a few nightclubs and people too drunk to even function right, you quickly made your way to the end of the grimy road and to the entrance of a crappy, run-down building. The place reeked of urine, alcohol, and various other nauseating scents that were, unluckily for you, heightened to an almost unbearable level. 

The building in itself was two stories tall with tinted black windows and a clapboard roof that was gradually sinking in on itself from years of wear and tear from storms. Trash and cardboard boxes leaned up against the side of the building between a few old warehouses, where you could faintly see the outline of a woman passed out on top of a pile of bags. The only decent thing to the bar was the blinking sign in the shape of a pole dancer and 'Larry's Pub' in green.

The inside of the place wasn't any better when compared to the outside of it. Its wooden floors creaked and were littered by beer stains and wrappers. The lights were particularly dim and a few even flickered on and off. There was a small stage off in the far, back corner where a short, red headed woman was singing in a soft, scratchy voice. Some random jazz sounding song you could've cared less about. You made your way over to the bar, sitting on possibly the only one that wasn't wobbly in your opinion. The few patrons sitting there looked up at you, and the bartender walked over to you.

"What can I get for you sweetie?" he must've thought you were a girl or something. Though that wasn't exactly hard with your small, lanky figure. You guessed he was okay looking with his short brown hair and golden eyes. You looked up at his name tag quickly before answering him.

"I'll take a sweet tea with some banana rum in it." you replied smoothly and turned around to face the woman still singing that stupid jazz song you could care less for.

Your gaze trailed over to the far corner where the only open window was to look out at the sky while Ronnie got you your drink of choice. The moon was a little closer to the horizon now, which meant you'd have to go back soon before dawn broke across the city. 

Someone was sitting in that corner that caught your attention. He was wearing a plain white hoodie, black dress pants it looked like, and he seemed to be pretty fit. But you couldn't see his face in the dim lighting because of his hood that was covering his head. He was slouched back in the wooden seat against the wallpaper, legs outstretched in a relaxed state minus his leg he kept bouncing on the ground. He seemed to be watching you intently, but you couldn't be certain seeing as you couldn't see where his eyes were at.

You smirked and looked away from his direction.

Although you couldn't see his eyes, that didn't stop you from reading his thoughts in order to tell. You projected a small bit of your soul over towards his mind-space, seeing the colors of a violent red, mellow white-grey color, and mystic black that was hiding so many secrets beneath its inky depths. Your mind became fuzzy as you forced aside his invisible barrier everyone put up subconsciously, but it quickly became clearer once you were in his thoughts. 

A flickering of what you assumed to be his family and their gruesome ends flashed across your red vision as other wild and random thoughts of others meeting their end by this guys hand flowed in the background. This was a hightail sign you pushed in too deep. You needed his most recent thoughts and to be able to see through his eyes.

The guys mind was thick, you'd give him that if push were to come to shove, but you knew it wouldn't. His thoughts filled up most of his mind-space, making it like a mud-ridden puddle you could hardly swim in. Most of it was of murder and rather 'perverted' thoughts you wished you hadn't seen. It took a moment until you finally found his most recent 'projections' and could see through his eyes. You looked through them, only to see yourself at the bar, sitting under a dim light that lit up your unnaturally pale skin. Your body was stuck staring out of the window blankly, leaning back on your elbows and muscles looking tense in concentration.

So, he was staring at you after all.

You quickly left his mind and retracted your soul back into your body with a deep breath, finally in-tensing and going to pop your knuckles and neck. A small groan left your lips as a headache found its' way to the back of your head from the strain of reading someone's thoughts. Doing that always did that to you. After a while of reading others thoughts though, the headaches would become duller and duller until it was only a small throb every now and then. 

You pulled down your hood and scratched at the back of your head as Ronnie set your drink down in front of you with a wink. Once he did, you grabbed the tall, slim glass in your small hand and downed over half of it in one gulp.

"Wow...never seen someone down that much in one shot. You come here often sweetie?" Ronnie asked, refilling the glass with half sweet-tea and half banana rum, letting you mix it in with a red straw that came with it. You let out a short laugh before looking up at him, not caring if he saw your unnatural eye color at all. People wore oddly colored contacts all the time anyways.

"Nope." you replied shortly to him.

It was his turn to let out a small laugh at this.

"I like you. What's your name sweetie? Or would you like me to keep calling you sweetie?"

"You shouldn't, and it's (y/n)...not sweetie..."

You could hear the guy in the white hoodie shifting in his seat and clutch at his glass of liquor tightly in his hand, taking a large gulp, and slamming the cup back onto the table. Ronnie looked up from you just long enough to send him a short scowl before returning back to paying attention to you, much to your displeasure. You mentally rolled your eyes and smirked up at him. Although you didn't like mortals, they seemed to really like you, plus that didn't mean you couldn't have your fun with them and then get a free meal afterwards. 

"But, you seem like a risk taker. Ronnie~" you purred.

Ronnie visibly shivered after you said his name. The faint smell of sweat and testosterone wafted into your nose. Meaning you had him right where you wanted him. All you had to do now was wait for either his shift to end, or for the perfect moment to coax him to the back alleyway for some 'fun'. But even you had to admit that sometimes your flirting worked a little too well every now and then. 

The sound of a gruff voice asking for a whiskey next to you caused you to groan in annoyance and pull back away from the waiter you had had right where you wanted. You looked away from the guy, at the jazz band that was playing now instead of that red-headed lady.

"Hey, names Jeff." You turned back around to face him, only to see the guy in the white hoodie. Now you could see that he had black hair that went down to his shoulders and almost the same skin tone as you. Your eyebrows rose up slightly and you let out a quiet snort.

"Look buddy, I'm not interested in making 'friends' so I suggest you leave me alone before you regret it." you took a long, slow sip of your drink, gulping it down even slower to savor the taste of it. 

You could sense Jeff's unease as he watched your throat muscles move to allow the liquid to go down it. You licked your lips slowly before continuing, tasting the cherry lip-balm you had put on earlier. 

"Plus, I may not look like it, but I can and will kick your ass if need be bud."

He let out a loud chuckle and slapped the counter beside your crossed arms. Obviously this guy had to be drunk beyond reason to not be able to hear and or see the truth you put behind each word. But, his laugh was contagious, making you start to giggle and eventually end up laughing out loud with him. 

"You may not want any friends but you can at least have a drinking buddy am I right?" he asked and used his shoulder to nudge at you.

"I guess a drinking buddy wouldn't hurt too much." You replied slyly.

Ronnie smacked the new glass of whiskey onto the counter in front of Jeff's elbow forcefully, as if angry with him for talking to you, which he probably was, but you couldn't care worth anything if he was pissed or not with this new 'drinking buddy' of yours. Oh you'd definitely be having a drink or two with him. 

Most likely not the type of drinking he'd expect, but who cared? Obviously not you considering you'd be doing the drinking later. You both looked up at Ronnie and you smirked at him. He shared eye contact with you for a moment before his face showed confusion.

"Hey, are you, wearing contacts? Or am I just drunk from smelling booze all day?"

Of course he had to bring up your eye color! Damn this idiotic bastard to hell and back for drawing attention to you! You took a sip from the tea, calmly as not to look suspicious to anyone. The two males around you looked on, awaiting an answer from you that you were sure to give them in due time. 

You set the sweating glass down gently on a coaster advertising some psychic reading lady, looking back up slowly to Ronnie with an almost eerily sweet smile to your look.

"They're contacts for a Halloween costume. I decided to wear them tonight to make sure I can see right through them." you took a small pause, smirking over to Jeff. "Plus, they are dead sexy~"


	2. Haunt

TWO

Jeff was tipsy, as he constantly kept on saying to you as you both walked out of the bar, him leaning against you and hiccupping and giggling like a little school girl who was just told a dirty joke in the school-yard. You honestly were only buzzed slightly, making only your vision blur every now and then and a warm feeling in your stomach. Jeff was in all honesty, definitely heavier than the guy looked. You mean, yes he was taller than you by about a foot or two, curse you tiny body, but you didn't expect him to be so god damn heavy and packing on the muscles that were the obvious cause of all the weight on your shoulders.

Because let's face the facts here, the guy most certainly wasn't a pound overweight for his height and age. And besides, it's not like you could feel his biceps beneath his hoodie, or heaven forbid, staring at his frame while he was chugging down all those shots you guys did together. That would just be plain-ass creepy. Even in your neck of the woods. (You totally were though XD)

"Damn it Jeff- where the hell do you even live? You god damn heavy-ass piece of shit." you grumbled, pausing at the corner of the block you were currently at.

Jeff let out another round of giggles at your words, rolling over to your back and wrapping his arms around your shoulders, his breath hitting your ear as he spoke. You groaned as he caused you to bend your knees in order to support his weight he was adding onto your upper back now.

"O-ho ho~ (Y/n) wants to get home so- soon already? What'cha got planned then (y-y/n)?"

"What I have planned is beating your heavy ass into next year for making me carry you!" you couldn't help but to growl out at him in frustration.

The streetlights were beginning to flicker off as the sun began to rise off to the left, lighting up the sky behind all the tall buildings of the city pink, purple, and partially orange. Your eyes widened as a prickling sensation started up on your arms and legs, a tell-tale sign you were getting frightened with goose-bumps. You heaved Jeff up higher onto your shoulders with a groan and began quickly walking as fast as you could with his dead weight down the street.

Hopefully you could dump him off at his place and get back to the place you called home, if you could even call an old warehouse a home. You sighed as you began to use some of your reserves to help you begin your jog down the rest of the way.

A few minutes of running down the streets of Washington, and navigating through some woods later - getting scratched occasionally by a stray branch and Jeff laughing his ass off at your pain - and you could see the large warehouse with the large hole in the roof again. You let out a sigh of relief as you came up to it, kicking the door open and then dropping the drunk onto your pile of blankets and clothes you got from a few houses of your old 'drinking buddies'.

You flopped backwards down next to him after going and closing the doors back up, hanging up a thick red blanket on the window above where you slept to keep the sun out, and shimming into a pair of loose sweats and an oversized long sleeve that slid off your shoulder. Being both mentally and physically exhausted meant one thing and one thing only. Instant sleep. Your eyelids automatically slipped shut and you let out a relieved sigh once more before feeling yourself fall into the black abyss of sweet succulent slumber.

The first bits of your dreams were all the same of you feeling as if you were free falling through a black, empty void, racing down deeper into the depths of your own mind before finally landing in a white lake, thick like vanilla ice cream. The lake was murky when you opened your eyes back up again, and it had wisps of an inky blackness to it like the water color paint of the two colors mixing together on a still wet canvas. You would look around briefly under the strange liquid before breaking the surface once more.

That was when your dreams would change. Some days it would be memories of your past, some days your imagination, others your subconscious letting you know it was time for you to meditate in the dream scape and recharge. Today it was your imagination and a bit of memory wrapped up into one you deciphered quickly.

The scene was like that out of a movie, miles of grassy field surrounded you as you opened your crimson eyes from where the lake should have been, creating a peaceful mindset that anyone could find relaxing. You looked down at yourself, seeing you now had on the same shirt and a pair of skinny jeans and plain black socks to cover your feet. Looking up you could see a cloudy sky that still allowed more than enough light to enter in through the holes between each cottony looking cloud and blue sky in the background as well. A cool breeze made the field become a shimmering wave of green, facing to the north up a hill. Atop that hill sat a large, dark mansion that didn't fit right into the scene at all.

Feeling your curiosity get the better of you, you let out a sigh and began climbing up the hill, closer towards the ominous building in your dreams. As you got closer it became apparent just how big the mansion actually was. It was almost three stories high and at least four full houses wide and long on every side.

The woodwork was painted a stark black and grey, a purple roof making it even darker. The front had too many large window-panes to count and had a double wide door that was a few feet taller than a normal adult's height would be when fully grown. There were wide, large grey pillars every fifteen feet on the porch, holding up the roof of the structure.

Off to the side there was a single porch swing, surrounded by different potted plants and other wooden chairs and a large wood table hosting a checker board and pitcher of lemonade with matching clear glasses that were half empty/full. You made your way up the dilapidated wooden steps, surprised by how they didn't creak at your small amount of weight with the way they looked so beat up and broken.

You made your way over to the doors and pushed them open, feeling a sense of familiarity overcome you as you stepped inside the dark house, almost as if you'd done this hundreds of times before.

A bright warm entryway welcomed you in, smelling of vanilla candles and lavender. Warm, mellow lights lit up the walls and ceiling. Glossy wood was covered up by a long red carpet heading down the long hallway, going past even the opened space just up ahead and down the length of the house, all the way to the end. There was antique wooden furniture lining the walls that seemed almost, familiar to you as you passed them and touched the spiral details of the workmanship.

Your sensitive hearing could hear movement coming from up ahead and around the corner, the sounds of it suggesting a fight going on between multiple people, shouting curses and some female laughter. You slowly continued towards there, turning the corner into what appeared to be a darkened living room of sorts with a large couch and entertainment center lighting the room up vaguely. Ten figures could be made out in the darkness, half of them participating in the fight.

One of them you could tell was Jeff from the way he smelt of iron and peaches and the sound of his raspy, loud voice. He was gripping the back of another males green tunic, lifting the kid up off the ground and laughing at his failed attempts to get down. A third male was taller than the rest of the figures, standing at almost seven feet tall and laughing like a mad man as he stood a mere three feet away, clutching his stomach. The fourth person in the room stood next to the tallest male, arms crossed and a mature aura to him as he observed Jeff and the kid fighting.

You turned your attention over to a shorter female with long, curly black hair and pale skin as she happily called your name and strolled over to you with open arms and a lovely smile gracing her blackened lips and eyes.

"(Y/n)! You're back early tonight! Were there not many guys out tonight for hunting?"

"Yeah...what's going on, Jane?" you asked, somehow knowing her name and returning the cold hug she enveloped you into.

"Jeff and BEN fighting over who cheated in Mario Kart...as per usual." she replied smoothly, keeping an arm around your shoulders as she led you further into the room.

"Anyways, we haven't seen you in a while (y/n). Well, last time we saw you, you were only this high next to me and Clocky!" she drawled on as she bent down slightly to touch her knee-cap with her free hand. "Why haven't you visited us all these years?"

Not knowing what she meant, or who 'Clocky' was, you shrugged in response as the two of you stopped behind the large couch, Jane standing in front of you and placing both hands on your shoulders now.

"We all missed your company so much sweetie! And Sally cried for almost a whole month when you stopped coming! But, oh- just look at you! You're so tall and handsome now!"

You looked around the dark room before returning your uneasy gaze back into her black voids that shined happily up towards you. A second pair of arms wrapped themselves around your waist and you looked back behind you to see a small girl with brown hair and glowing green eyes smiling up at you, dirt and blood covering her body and face. A sense of sadness washed over you as you looked down at her, smiling and bending down slightly to be eye level with the little angel.

"And what's your name, little one?" you smiled warmly to her as she giggled in response, hugging her stuffed bear closer to her chest in a choke-hold.

"I'm Sally silly! Will you play with me (y/n)? Please!?"

"Of course I will! How could I ever say no to that pretty face of yours angel?"

Sally grabbed your hand, sending shivers down your spine from how cold it was compared to your own freezing body temperature. She began walking down the hallway towards what you thought was the back of the house. You continued to smile down at her even though she wasn't looking at you.

Even though you couldn't remember exactly who she was or what your history was with the whole house, a sense of relief and love washed over you at the sound of all the noise and the way everything looked, as if you had previously lived here at one point in time in your life while you were younger.

"(y/n)!" a voice called from a distance.

You stopped, Sally's hand gliding right through yours as you turned your head behind you, only to see no one there. All that was behind you was a black void with a light far off in the distance. It was so small and far away, but it seemed so intense and as if it was getting closer to you quickly. You heard the voice call once more, no one there once again when you turned towards where it was coming from.

It happened twice more before the light swallowed you whole, enveloping you in a searing hot hug, causing you to shout out until the burning sensation suddenly stopped and all that was left was the feeling of two warm hands shaking you. Your eyes opened quickly, only to be blinded as you blinked a few times to get used to the light that had engulfed the whole place. There was a white figure whose face was blacked out; the only thing prominent about them was that they had two glowing, grey-blue eyes focused down on you.

"(y/n)? (y/n)! Thank god! I thought you were dead or something for a second there man! You were out for a whole fucking day dude!" Jeff sighed in relief before letting go of your arms again. "I was waiting for you to wake up so you could tell me how to get back to town, but when the sun started going down and you weren't up, I... panicked? I guess you could say... I thought you might have had too much to drink or something last night..."

"Jeff? What the hell are you even talking about? What day is it?"

"Um...Tuesday? Why?"

"Fuck man it's the same shitty day as 'yesterday'! I always sleep until it's dark! The sun's too bright and intense for my skin to handle dude..."

"Oh...sorry..."

~

"Why do you live so far out in the woods anyways (y/n)?" Jeff asked after a few hours of hanging out in the warehouse, you tossing him an old soda from your mini fridge in the corner. "Isn't this place like, I don't know...gross?"

At this you looked around the place you lived in. Although it had been abandoned for almost thirty years now, you had been living there for almost three years with nothing better to do but try and fix it up and keep it clean enough to look at least decent. The building was huge, being almost four stories high and around fifty feet in length on all sides. There were steel walkways and staircases leading up to the third floor that housed more than just a few offices that now served as rooms for different purposes such as letting a few abandoned animals hang out for a while, while they healed and such or found a new home. All the concrete floors had been swept, meaning there were dirt/dust walkways at the entrance and back.

You had even gotten a rather fancy surround sound system from an old 'drinking buddy's house one night and set it up to where you could hear your music from anywhere in the place. You had a corner near the front sectioned off as your 'room' and another as your living room with a flat screen and a few random colored bean bags as well, hell you even had an Xbox and a few games to go with it. So no, you didn't think it was gross to live here. Sure the huge hole in the ceiling caused a bit of a problem with birds, and leaves, and rain and snow, but you worked hard for it and you were proud of your home.

"Absolutely not. I work hard for what I want in life Jeff, and I worked hard for this. So no, my home isn't gross in the slightest." You replied, turning around and placing your hands across your chest. "Sure there might be a few blood stains and a smell of death occasionally but it's my home and I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. So stop being rude about it or I can throw you out into the cold ass-wipe!"

Jeff seemed to be taken aback by this as he sat up straighter in his seat on your bed of blankets and clothing. Although his hood kept his face hidden from you still, you could feel the anger bubbling up in him as he gripped the orange soda tighter in his hand and you continued to glare at him with a scowl on your face. Suddenly you decide to smirk and snort with your head tilted up slightly at him. You opened up your own soda with just using your thumb, popping the beer-look-alike cap off and taking a short swig of it.

It wasn't warm or even the metallic sweetness you were used to, but it was still better than letting your throat go hoarse from being dry and shouting at this idiot that sat in front of you. Jeff seemed to have his blood boil at seeing how smug you were as he turned to the side and gulped down half of the soda in his hands and turned back to you with his head down.

"Fuck you man..." he finally growled out as you laughed at this. How long have you even lived here for anyways?"

"Least three years...more or less." you shrugged and turned to look to the back of the warehouse. "It's kind of lonely here but after a while, I realized guys and girls wanted to get in my pants...so y'know...I had a few flings and that kept me distracted and what not. But even that started to get boring so now it's only 'I get to know you first' kind of deal with me...you know?"

You turned back in time to see Jeff's shoulders shaking as he began to laugh out loud, letting his head flip back as he did. The strange thing was that he placed a hand over his hood to keep it in place even though most people would let the hood just fall down off their heads. Not only that but you caught a glimpse of his mouth as he flipped back and you noticed something, unusual about it let's just say. His mouth seemed almost wider than a normal persons would or should ever be. Â 

"Pretty much the same for me too...why the sudden interest in my sex life? You suggesting something to me?" he said in a flirtatious tone to you.

"I...I...um...uh...n-no...?" you sputtered out, getting flustered as you turned around and walked over to your entertainment center to turn on some music to calm your suddenly hyperactive nerves. Unfortunately, the song that came on only made you even more flustered seeing as it was one of those 'mood setting' songs by none other than Jeffree Star. "No! No! No! Fuck you world! No!"

You quickly flipped through your playlist until you landed on some rave music, turning back around towards Jeff with your face covered in red. Jeff was snickering if you could tell from his shoulders shaking up and down in what appeared to be a laughing manner as he held his hands on his knees with his head turned to the ground once more. You let out a frustrated growl to him and clenched your hands into fists. If only you could just go over and snap his neck just to make him stop being such an asshole-ish prick to you.

But, he was lucky that there was something about him that you found charming. Whatever it was though, you had no idea what, it was working for his favor at the moment.

"Look, Jeff, I'm going to take you back into the city once it gets dark enough that the sun won't cause me to get a sunburn five seconds after I set foot outside. Until then can we not," you paused, thinking of the right words to say to him. "Embarrass each other any further? Please man?"

"Awe! But it's so much fun to mess with people like you and make them get all flustered and shit like that!"

"Well...how about we just hang out instead? Y'know...play video games for a few hours...talk about, whatever comes to mind. Stuff like that." You tried again to reason with him while sitting back down across from him. "No embarrassing each other anymore?"

Jeff sighed but nodded his head in agreement to your conditions, leaning back in his seat while you smiled to him and turned your t.v on from where you sat, an episode of your favorite show coming on. After a while it became dark enough for you to show Jeff the way back into the city and got dressed up in a pair of dark jeans, a loose-fit blue t-shirt, and a light jacket with a hood and your chained ankle boots, slipping on your backpack and hiding a large kitchen knife in your back pocket just in case.

You turned and signaled for Jeff to follow you with a tilt of your head in the direction of the door, making Jeff get up from his seat begrudgingly and trudge towards you with his half-finished orange soda in his hand, hanging by the tips of his fingers. You smiled to him before opening up the large sliding door and stepping out into the sprinkling of rain, your face instantly becoming damp before you could even put on your hood to protect yourself from it.

You sighed and waited until Jeff was out of the way to close the door once more and you led the way through the darkened forest, the large trees looking like those dead black ones you would see in a movie from the little light from the moon that seeped through openings in the clouds.

"Hey (Y/n)?" Jeff asked after a few minutes of walking North.

You continued to walk on-wards but turned your head slightly to glance back at Jeff. "Yeah?"

"What ever happened to you that made you come live all the way out in the woods in that warehouse back there?"

You snapped your head back up from the ground, red eyes wide as you turned back to Jeff and you were on him before you or he could even blink with your grip tightening around the collar of his hoodie. Too many things had happened in your past for you to even begin to think of remembering them. Anger flooded your vision as you quickly grabbed the hilt of your knife and brought it up to stab him in the throat.

All you could think about was your anger and past agonies, no coherent thought passed through your mind at that moment except for kill. Even though you put all your raging force into that hit, Jeff had somehow pulled out his own knife and blocked it, the force sending you skidding backwards a few meters and a metal clang ringing through the air.

"Don't you EVER! Bring up my past again! You hear!?" you roared out, not even noticing the crows and other birds flying away from how loud you just were.

You didn't leave room for Jeff to reply before you were upon him again, jumping up at the last second and rotating to kick him in the face. He slid on the leaf and mud ridden ground before standing back up just in time for you to land a blow to his stomach, sending him back another few feet from you. You could hear a low primal growl coming from him as he gripped his knife harder in his hand, turning his already white knuckles a furious pink color.

You waited for him to attack, body as tense as it could be as Jeff's head hung low enough for you to see the large grin on his face in the moonlight. The rain drizzled down each of your faces as it piled together and eventually dripped down off of each your chins. It tasted sweet and salty at the same time as you licked your lips. All your anger seemed to seep out of you slowly and you hoped Jeff would just hurry up and fight you already.

A thought that wasn't your own crossed your mind and you almost missed it before you realized it was Jeff's thought you were subconsciously listening in on. He didn't want to hurt you. How could he not even want to hurt you in just the tiniest of ways after you had just gotten almost three hits on him? He should be furious and intending to kill you! Not just standing there and waiting for you to vent out all your sudden anger!

"Why aren't you attacking me!? You should be fucking furious with me!"

"Because..." Jeff stated monotonously to you. "I know better than to fight some bloodsucker (Y/n)."


	3. Grace

THREE

My mother was so, so beautiful from what I can recall from my past memories and dreams. She was the kindest, most generous person who would always help those in need no matter how bad things were for her. The thing I most remember is how she always smiled when it rained or it was gloomy outside. She never let anything bring her down. No matter what. That was like her life motto, no matter what happened, you can always smile in the end if you try hard enough.

No one knew when or exactly why my mom had left me there on the side of the road. Some members of my family said it was because she couldn't handle being an actual mother, while everyone else thought she had left me for some random guy she fell in love with who didn't want kids that weren't his own. But I knew the truth about it.

I knew the truth about it all. My mother hadn't left me for some guy or because she hated me or because she couldn't handle being a mother at sixteen. She left me on the side of the road because she had to otherwise she would have lost me and no mother could stand the thought of her own child dead.

I was only around eight or nine when she did and I had stayed in that exact spot for three whole days, standing in the rain and cold winds, watching as dozens of cars went by each hour just waiting for her to come back out from those god awful woods and hug me and kiss me and tell me everything was going to be okay and she really did love me. Â But, it never happened. She stayed in those woods while I stayed in that spot staring into the dark depths between the trees and shrubs.

It wasn't until on the fourth day that someone stopped their car and got out. The man had been tall, taller than any guy I had ever seen. His skin was almost as pale as the snow that had lightly covered the ground and his body so slim he was like a large tree branch. The man had a sickeningly sweet smile on his face with sharp teeth so unnatural for any human to ever have. He was cold to the touch and when he spoke it came out sounding like a threatening purr of a cat who knew he had caught the mouse.

"Lost little boy? Where is your mother or father with their car?" his voice stuck to my memory and would not go away even after so many years later.

I remember tilting my head back as far as it could go and frowning into his dark, bleak eyes that held no emotion other than lust and smugness.

"My mommy went into the woods a few days ago and hasn't come back. But," I turned and smiled out to the trees and hugged my silver winter coat tighter against me. "I know she'll be back any minute now mister."

"Ah, I see." he had said it with such a knowing tone; as if he knew something I would never be able to comprehend.

"Do you know the story behind those woods my lost little boy?"

I shook my head slowly and looked up to the mans' face once more, not liking how he was calling me his lost little boy at all. "What's the story about the woods?"

"Well, lost little boy, those there are the Slender Woods. Only lost souls and those who have dealt with the Slenderman himself go into those woods. Some say the lost souls stay there long after their bodies have perished, trapped because of the Slenderman, lost to forever haunt those woods and scare other people away. And if scaring them doesn't work, they kill them to save them from a more agonizing death. But, those who deal with Slenderman go into those woods for a different reason entirely."

"What's their reason for going into the woods?"

"Negotiations." he said simply and crouched down to look into my (e/c) eyes.

For some reason I never asked the man what he meant by negotiations, and I somehow knew my mother had made a deal with the Slenderman to keep me safe and alive. But what that deal was, well I was never told by the man, nor did I ask. It was both a touchy topic for me and the man to speak about. For me it was because I would never see her again and I knew it and for the man if I ever asked him he would get this look in his eyes while he glared down at me.

And as I grew older he would hit whenever he heard or thought I would bring it up to get me to shut up. I never did like the man but I knew my mother asked for him to watch over me. That was the only other thing he ever told me about.

Over the years I went to school in a different area with this one group of teen's that seemed to be the same age and were always guarding me like some sort of precious gem on display at the museum that had been worth millions. They grew on me over the years and all I could remember about them was their smiles and the bond we all shared.

All my memories were hazy, whenever I tried to remember something it felt like static on and an old t.v, loud, unfocused, and very unclear no matter what. I could not remember anything about those people or what they looked like. No names, no places, nothing. Almost as if they didn't even exist in the first place. But I knew they did. I just had a problem with trying to remember them was all.

Hell, now that I mention it all I can remember about that man is his eyes and voice and his unnatural body.

~

"Because..." Jeff stated monotonously to you. "I know better than to fight some bloodsucker (Y/n)."

Jeff's words pierced you like a wooden stake. It stung. It stung much deeper and much worse than burning your hand on the burner on a stove or stubbing your toe or getting soap in a paper cut. It hurt like hell and you almost fell to your knees in agony at the realization of it that he knew. He knew something about you in a few measly hours that you hadn't figured out about yourself in years.

Years! Years you had been like this, avoiding sunlight because it stung you, creeping into bars and clubs to seduce your next victim into an alleyway with you, years of drinking peoples' blood and killing them so you could survive because you were just that fucking selfish to put your own needs before others.

They had needed what you had stolen from them in order to live and at first you were doing that as well. Living amongst them while also feasting off of them, but soon you turned greedy and did it whenever you wanted to, the blood becoming addicting and consuming you into a deep void you could not escape no matter how hard you tried.

It killed you on the inside to watch yourself doing it over and over and over and over and fucking over! You just wanted it to stop and leave you so you could die. But your body would never let you do that, primal urge taking over whenever you tried to stop yourself from eating by locking yourself up in the warehouse, basically becoming what you really are, a demon straight from hell.

That demon would consume your thoughts and actions, taking over for you and going out and killing anyone it could get its hands on so it could live to see the next night. It killed innocent children, innocent women walking home from helping at a local Goodwill, it took fathers coming home to see their children who were left in wheelchairs after an army accident in another country. It held no sympathy for them and just focused on surviving on those who were weaker than it.

So after weeks of it happening over and over again, you had finally caved and started to feast off of those who deserved to die in the first place. But you hated it. Absolutely fucking hated it.

"You think I like being like this!?" you shouted back, feeling your fangs starting to grow in anger that was riled up once more because of this asshole. "You think I chose to be like this!? You think I enjoy killing people and ripping families apart Jeff!?"

Jeff was silent for a moment before he slowly took off his hood, finally revealing his face to you when he looked back up at you. His blue eyes glowed in the moonlight and were left unblinking, black ash underneath them. A large, bloody smile ran jagged on both sides of his lips up to his cheekbones and his skin was leathery looking and paper white, a steep contrast to his dark ebony hair that went down to his shoulders. You stepped back slightly and gripped your knife harder in your hand.

"I don't expect you to like it (y/n). If you knew my past you would know I regret some of the things, I did to my own family. But it's not your fault that you do what it is you do! You were made that way, right?"

"What's it to you?! Why the hell do you even fucking care!" you screamed out to him from where you stood. "Why don't you just go! All you gotta do is keep heading north and you'll reach downtown in less than ten fucking minutes!"

"(Y/n), I care because I can help you and because I know what it's like. The seemingly never ending bloodlust. The urge to kill anyone and everyone you set your eyes on just because you know, you know it would be so easy to do so. The guilt every time an episode ends I can help you. Not personally, but I know someone who can. He won't be able to take your need for blood away completely, but he could help you get it under control if you'll just trust me and come with me!"

You thought about his wording for a moment, thinking back to the man who had changed you into what you are today. How could you EVER get your thirst under control? This guy Jeff was talking about being able to help you, you didn't know the guy and why would Jeff want to help you anyways? You'd only known each other for a few short hours!

That man had taken everything from you in that moment he bit you. The pain he had caused from that bite didn't go away once you had finally changed; no it was everlasting and will never leave you alone, not even for a second. But, it wouldn't hurt to try just to amuse him, and who knows. Maybe you could get a few meals if the guy failed in the process or maybe you would die. Then at least all the pain would leave you be and you could rest easy knowing you would never have to kill any innocent lives again.

"Fine Jeff, I'll go with you." you finally replied back to him.

"Really? That's- that's- Great!"

"Only, if, in any case your friend fails, you either kill me or leave me alone for the rest of your life. I say this to you because since you believe we are friends; I think it's only fair that you do what I ask of you if I have a good enough reason for it and to give you a fair warning. My reason being for killing me is that I don't want to kill innocent lives that could be saved if I no longer existed. And I don't have any reason so far to kill you other than bringing up my past and being an ass. So I would prefer if you left me alone if you cannot kill me." you said, not looking up but at the ground instead as it continued to rain down on the two of you. "That is my one condition. And if you can't accept the terms I have set, then go on your merry way."

"Why do you want those to be your conditions for just coming with me and helping you?" his voice sounded nothing but confused and you laughed at him for asking such a stupid, silly question.

"Jeff, have you ever been alone in a crowded room? Felt like you were drowning without breathing in water? Felt like you were nothing but a burden on everyone around you backs?" Â You asked him, hands clenching up to your chest. "Do you know what it's like, to know your own family died just for you? And then for you to feel so guilty for being miserable enough to want to give away what they sacrificed so you could go on living? Because that's how it is for me every single, fucking day Jeff."

Jeff was silent for a moment before he sighed and looked back up to you from where he stood. "Alright (y/n). If my friend can't help you get your need for blood under control, then I'll do whichever you want me to do. But promise me you'll wait at least a year before you decide whether or not it's worked okay?"

You paused, thinking again before -

"Okay."

~

Everything has its place in this world and a purpose, you just didn't know yours yet, that was all. You just needed to breath and you would be fine, you could forget about everything. You could forget about Jeff, you could forget that weird dream you had about a day ago, you could forget about it all. All there was to do was say forget it and turn back around to the warehouse and go to a bar or a club so you could eat and drink and possibly go home with some random guy and crash there for the night.

But you kept on going along with Jeff to where ever it was he was taking you. The woods were getting thicker around the two of you, shutting out the moon and increasing the music of crickets and cicadas. The path grew to where you both could walk side by side, you continued to walk behind him, and the path twisted and turned more frequently the further you went. Jeff walked down the path, almost as if he had walked it hundreds of times before, almost as if he were in a trance or had a homing beacon implanted into him somewhere.

His hood remained down, letting you see his head of hair flopping whenever he hopped over broken tree branches. You wanted so badly to know where you both were going. You just wanted to reach up in front of you, pull him back by his hood, and demand he tell you who you were going to meet with to help you get you bloodlust under control and where.

But you didn't. You allowed him to keep going. To keep getting ahead of you and keep his secrets to himself. But, that wouldn't stop you from trying to figure them all out. If anything you could find out every little detail about him by going into his mind for just a few hours. You both just needed to stop so that you could focus on his mind, and not end up walking straight into a tree. And you would have to keep Jeff from finding out you could read peoples minds. People finding out you could do that never led anywhere good for you. You had told that man that had taken you in about it a few years back when you had turned fourteen a few months before about your gift, though it seemed more like a curse more than anything.

He hadn't acted so kindly to hearing that.

The man had gone from caring about your grades and safety, to keeping his distance from you and keeping you trapped inside for as long as he could. Somehow the group of friends you had, had somehow found out about it and they began to keep their distance as well. Soon the whole town had begun to keep their distance from you, deeming you dangerous and unnatural and a freak. But that's where it stopped making sense for you. The whole town had a strange aura to it and the people there even stranger.

It had seemed as though everyone there was keeping secrets of their own from you and only you. They were open with many until they noticed you nearby. They would be laughing and shouting out in joy and having bounds and bounds of fun. You would be left standing there at the edge of everything, watching. Waiting for someone, anyone, to come and save you from your own burning hell you called an imagination and a curse. That wasn't what you wanted.

Being hated and feared was never what you wanted. You wanted to hate and were afraid all the time. They weren't supposed to be. You were supposed to hate them all because they had what you didn't. A family to go home to and call your own.

You were supposed to fear. Not them. Because what was it they were to fear? Crime was a welcomed thing in that town. You were supposed to fear never seeing your mother again because you still had hope she was alive somewhere out there and that she had to leave you in order to keep you safe. They weren't supposed to fear you.

Somehow, just somehow.

"Stop."

You looked up from the ground to see Jeff holding out a hand to keep you from going any further. You looked down at it, seeing the leathery texture it had and how it looked like an ice sculpture in the pale glow from the moon that cascaded down to the earth from above. You looked back up to him, confusion laced on your face as he stood with one leg on a tree branch up to your knee and the other stretched out behind him, like he had stopped mid-way from climbing over it. His face was towards the open field in front of you two, eyes scanning for any and all enemies before he would let you follow.

You took to sniffing the air for anything, finding only a few minuscule animals in the area.

"Jeff, what are you even doing? I just sniffed out the area and all I smell is your stank ass." you brushed past him and hopped over the log. "It's fine to go on. Nothing is going to attack us if that's what your-"

You were cut off as you heard leaves rustle and felt a dark presence across the field from you, burning two, no multiple holes into your back. You slowly looked around you to see angry purple eyes and a long, canine like snout that was foaming at the mouth peeking out from behind the trees. Your breath caught in your throat as a giant black paw with claws stepped out from the underbrush, soon followed by three more and a giant, lizard like tail that dragged behind on the ground.

The beast rose up its two heads into the sky and opened up their large maws in order to give out a loud cross between a wolf howl, falcon screech, and a snake hiss. The creature held up two large, wolf like heads with sharp beaks, holding snake fangs on the inside. Its six eyes were squinted in anger and black fur prickled up as it crouched down low.

"(y/n)!" Jeff hissed silently to you. "Whatever you do, don't look those things in the eyes. It will attack you in an instant."

You took a deep breath in and watched intently as the creature sniffed the ground shortly before lifting its head once more and locking eyes with you. It growled lowly and slowly began to stalk towards you. You stood there frozen to the spot in fear as your blood froze in your veins. That, that thing looked so familiar to you. But the memory eluded you, clouded by a sort of fog. It was sort of funny though, how you could see into others minds, but couldn't remember most of your own childhood.

The beast continued on slowly towards you as you felt Jeff set one of his hands onto your shoulder. You normally would have glared back at him, but your attention remained squinted back at the thing before you.

"(y/n)!"

You continued to ignore Jeff and stuck out your hand for the creature.

"(y/n)!"

The creature was almost to you by now.

"(Y/N)!" Jeff screeched into your ear it seemed as he pulled you back over the log and dragged you on behind him back through the forest. The monster screeched out into the open night air after a moment of hesitation. The trees whipped by you and Jeff as you ran to keep up with him and stop yourself from being dragged on the ground. You heard trees snapping in half behind you and looked back to see the two-headed beast making its way towards the two of you quickly.

Suddenly the world went crashing down around you. The ground soon became the sky and your feet left the dirt path. You became weightless and the only sound was a muffled scream, the beast screeching as it followed you down, and the wind rushing past your face. You became a bird for a split second in time. Soaring through the sky and up towards the moon.

But then you fell from the clouds, landing face first into the muddy ground. You rolled down the long hill with Jeff still holding onto your hand as he rolled too. Leaves and dirt and rocks pelted you on all sides. The pain and rolling seemed to go on forever until you finally rolled into Jeff and came to a stop.

You heard Jeff groan from beside you and you rolled your head from side to side, pain filled tears rolling down your cut up cheeks. The salt from your tears made the bleeding cuts sting worse, but they couldn't be stopped. Your ears began to ring and when you opened your eyes, the moon was too bright and everything was a shade of blood red for you. A hiss came from your mouth and you felt the aura of the beast skid to a stop at the bottom of the cliff. The dirt moved up into small piles beneath its massive feet as it growled and stalked the few meters towards the two of you.

"Jeff-" you groaned out.

The beast let out a growl at the name and seemed to gently grab your right leg with its jaw, almost as if it were afraid of hurting you. It began to drag you away from Jeff who continued to lay on the ground motionless. You kept your gaze on him, waiting for him to get up, twitch a finger, anything so long as you knew he would be okay. But he remains still as a broken statue. Laying there in the wet dirt while the beast dragged you backwards by the pant leg.

It lay down near the tree line away from him, dragging you up beside it to rest by itself. Its massive paw wrapped over you, keeping you in place as it softly leaned down and nuzzled into your chest and neck, its single head being as large as your torso. A purring sound could be heard from it when it lifted its head back up again, the other turning to look down at you as well. The twin heads blinked owlishly down at you before leaning back down to your arm that was now covered with bruises and scratches with your hoodies sleeve torn off from the fall, and gently beginning to lick both the arm and your face clean of dirt and blood, keeping any chance for infection from happening.


	4. Tradgedy

FOUR

****

You woke up to the sound of beeping on a heart monitor. Your eyes opened up quickly, adjusting to the dark room swiftly as your night vision kicked in. The bed you laid on was soft and covered in white sheets to keep you warm while you rested. You turned your head down to your left arm, noticing the thin tube pumping water into your system for you. 

The room smelt of medicine and death and oddly enough, that beast. But that couldn't be right. You were in a building, a room, a small room at that filled with large cabinets and the bed you currently rested upon. That's when you felt something warm and small stir in your lap. You looked down only to be greeted by six, owl like purple eyes that glowed in the dark of the room. The beast looked like a small little puppy, but with two heads and a long, lizard tail that curled around it. 

The heads each let out a small yawn and then returned back to looking at you with one of the heads tilting at you in confusion.

"Uh...hey there...little guy?"

The heads growled.

"Sorry. Girl-?"

The creature looked into each other's eyes before turning back to you and nodding their heads in agreement. You smiled softly to it and tentatively stuck your hand out to pet it. The puppy-snake-thing sniffed at your fingers before nuzzling underneath your hand and beginning to purr in your lap. While you did this, you looked down at your arms and chest to see it wrapped completely in gauze that had a few red splotches on it. Your mind was fuzzy about what had happened for a moment until you remembered being chased by a much larger version of the little thing you were currently petting. You remembered the giant hill, the long tumble down it, the way this thing treated you like its child afterwards. Yet, you didn't remember falling asleep at all.

The door suddenly opened, allowing a stream of white, yellowish light to flow into the room as a person in a black, opened hood quickly walked down the metal stairs into the room, water bottle in hand and heavy metal blasting in his headphones. He turned on a dim table lamp on the counter across from you and didn't seem to notice you had awoken, or were in the room for that matter. He shuffled through some papers quickly, looking for a certain one while mumbling the words to a song that sounded vaguely familiar to you. 

The male let out a silent 'AHA!' and held up a single piece of white paper with writing on it that you could almost make out with your night vision if you squinted.

"Alright, let's see... Jeff said his name was supposedly (y/n). Looks about eighteen and a bit underweight even with this blood lust of his. I think I could fix that in a few days. Blood lust, we'll have to do a few tests first before we can get started. But, seems manageable enough so far." he turned around to lean against the counter and pulled out one of his headphones and looked up at you, his black eyes going wide in startelement before he gently smiled to you. 

"Oh, so you're awake already. Must be the accelerated healing of yours working. And I see the Hollow is still here as well. Beautiful creatures they are. Able to morph into many different animals and yet chose to be a smaller version of its true form just to stay in here and watch over you."

"And you are-?" you asked him, still continuing to pet the Hollow in your lap as it growled at the man.

"Oh! Forgive my terrible manners! I always forget to introduce myself to new people. I'm Mason, the doctor for the house. Well, one of the doctors of the house. There's Doctor Smiley and Eyeless Jack as well as Nurse Anne and my assistant Julie over here." Mason pointed over to a head of a blonde woman with a face morphed into a scream and grey eyes blown wide. 

Her head sat in a large jar atop a metal tool tray with medical supplies. Though her face was terrifying and morbid with it having one of her eyes hanging by a vein and large gash in her left cheek, this did not scare you. You just blinked at it and turned back to Mason.

"Where am I?"

"Oh! Oh! I can answer that fairly easily. You're home. Uh, the um...." Mason put a latex covered hand up to his chin and turned to the dark ceiling in thought. "The Slender Mansion! That's- At least- that's what everyone here calls it."

You blinked at him. 

The Hollow sat back down in your lap calmly, sensing your ease around the doctor.

"Um... oh yeah! The Hollow right there! In your lap right now! Beautiful thing it is, but viscous as a rattle snake and king cobra on steroids! It wouldn't let anyone come close to you! I'm surprised it let me put that tube in your arm and Jeff carry you here into the house and that it shrunk itself just to stay in here with you to protect you from everyone! Doing that takes a lot of power from them when they change forms after a while. The Hollows probably going to need to go outside soon in order to rest and gain some power back from the trees and probably needs to hunt too."

You were about to reply when the door creaked open and you heard thundering footsteps coming down. You and Mason shared a quick glance before looking up at who had interrupted your conversation about the Hollow in your arms. The figure came down the metal stairs, flipping on the light and causing you to let out a slight hiss at the sudden brightness and shield your eyes with your arm. You closed your eyes before slowly opening them back up again to see who it was. 

Your eyes landed on a woman with long, curly black hair down the length of her back. Her skin was snow white and her eyes as black as an abyss. Her lips were tainted the same shade as her eyes and hair, petite figure hidden with a white blouse and black pencil skirt and walking on black boots. "He really was telling the truth! Jeff was right for once."

She took a step closer towards your bed-side, arms open wide to hug you until she noticed the Hollow growling up at her.

"You bonded with a Hollow?!" she stated in shock. "Slender was right! You really are something special (y/n)!"

"JANE!" a voice rattled the house furiously. "GET YOUR ASS UP HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!"

~

The three of you made your way up the stairs quickly, Jane following after the two of you slowly with an annoyed look to her face, and you struggling to hold onto the Hollow and pull on your mended hoodie. The room you came into was large and warmly lit up with Christmas lights that were strung up all the way around it and even into the hallway beside it. The room was filled with old, polished antiques set up in an elegant and open manner with a few sofas filled up with fluffy looking pillows and blankets over the sides of them. There was a large flat screen television sitting on a wooden shelf, filled with DvD's and movies and different gaming systems. 

A boy that looked about fourteen or fifteen with blonde hair and wearing a green Link outfit sat on the ground in front of one of the couches, attention only on the racing game he had in hand. Jeff could be seen sitting next to the blonde (had the blonde actually been sitting on the couch) with gauze wrapped around his head and one of his arms in a sling. His eyes were glued onto his phone.

Next to him sat a girl with black hair that fell onto the floor from where she sat leaning against the couch's arm. Her feet lay on top of Jeff's lap, covered up by long, black and white striped socks. Her legs were long and pale and sleek, telling you she was rather tall and swift in motion. Her face was a soft, round shape, focused on you and the others with her shining blue eyes. At first glance you thought she was judging you, but then a small smile graced her lips and she gave a small wave in your direction. You gave an awkward wave in return and a fleeting smile. Mason began to walk again over to the couch and leaned against the back of it between both Jeff and the girl, smirking over to her, only for her to let out a small scoff and turn to the television instead.

"Jeff, Ben, Marley~ how are you all this evening?" he asked, continuing to stare at the girl you now knew as Marley. "Well, I hope."

None of them replied to the male, glaring up at him instead. Mason put his hands up as if he were surrendering to an enemy. Something told you he wasn't well liked among the three for some, unknown reason. 

"Alright, alright. I see how it is. You guys are pissed that I won at the game of cards last night. I get that. But me and my friend (y/n) over here need to go see Slender in his office for a moment and have a little...chat on where he'll be staying at while he's here."

"(y/n)? Is that the guy Jeff over here has a man cru-!" Marley was cut off before she could finish her sentence by Jeff smacking his good hand over her mouth. 

You could hear loud muffles coming from her as she sat there a moment angrily glaring at him. Jeff glared back at her, hissing something into her ear that you were too tired to listen in onto. They stayed that way for a minute more until Marley rolled her eyes and kicked the ravenette off her and onto the floor. 

"I'll kick you where the sun doesn't shine next time you do that Smiler!"

Jeff hugged his stomach in pain on the floor, the blonde boy in a Zelda outfit shouting for him to get off beneath him. You let out a short yawn and looked to the flat screen to see that the guys car had crashed with virtual police swarming his virtual self. Mason let out a short laugh and scratched at the back of his neck awkwardly. These people had a really strained relationship it looked like.

"Hey! I'm Marley! But you can call me Marlz if ya' want!"

You backed up slightly into the side wall behind you as the tall girl from before smiled to you. Her teeth you noticed were slightly sharper than your own and her blue eyes weren't just a bright shade, they actually glowed in the dark. The closer you looked you could see an image of a church that had been set on fire in her memories and hear pain filled screams that sounded like they had come from both herself and a little girl you couldn't recognize. 

You shook your head to rid of her thoughts and blinked back into reality in order to focus on her. She blinked right back at you and continued to smile, leaning on her knees in order to be eye-level with you.

"Your eyes are an interesting thing. They show a lot of pain with your past... don't worry though! We'll make ya' forget all about those bad memories!" Marley then backed up and you could see her floating comfortably in the air, small black demon wings flapping lazily to keep her up. "We're good like that."

"G-good to know?"

You relaxed a little bit more and looked over to see Jeff and the blonde guy now standing and glaring over to Marley who floated there with her tongue sticking out and giving a shrug to them. You let out a sigh, turning to see Mason still leaning against the back of the couch lazily. He smiled and gave you a waving peace sign, which you shyly smiled back to. You turned back to see Marley and Jane beginning a quiet conversation with each other, Jane blushing slightly and wringing her hands with a bright smile on her face. The blonde male then walked up to you with his dark eyes squinted up at you and stubby arms crossed. 

"So youâ€™re the guy everyone's been talking about? Huh...I don't see the big deal about you."

"Says the little blonde shit that is even shorter than me..." you glared right back down at him.

You could feel the tension rising in the room. The sound of the abandoned video games music was background music to the sound of everyone's breathing and slight shift as they waited, and held their breaths watching for anything to happen. You never broke your gaze from the small elf. Not even for a second.

You had learned early on living with that man in that strange town to always be on your guard. You could never give your enemy a chance to attack or give away a 'blind' spot. You had to keep track of your enemy's every movement and memorize their tactics before striking. The tension seemed to reach its peak before a sound cut through it, causing you to tilt your head in confusion to the elf like blonde standing in front of you. At first you didn't recognize the sound, but slowly you began to put the pieces together. Laughter. Actual laughter. Coming from the boy beneath you.

The boys laughter was high in pitch and would randomly cut to a different voice, even higher in pitch yet. (Think about his laugh as a mix between the happy salesman laugh from Majoras Mask and a six-year-old boys giggle. It made you think that it was a CD going on repeat from how many times it kept switching pitch. Almost like a glitch. That's when you noticed he was glitching, disappearing out of reality before catching himself and staying there in front of you. Once you got over the initial glitch-like laugh, you found yourself laughing as well with him.

"The name's BEN....BEN Drowned." BEN held out a small hand for you to shake, which you did, finding that it was both cold and wet.

"(Y/n) ...(y/n) (l/n)."

~

You and Mason made your way from what you guessed to be the living room down the long, dimly lit hallway towards a rather large pair of black double doors that gave you chills. Mason didn't seem to be affected by the aura protruding from them, most likely from experience you supposed. You gulped down the lump of fear that had begun forming in your throat and straightened up your back. Whoever was behind those doors, you could and would deal with. As far as you knew they were just another person with a, nasty habit of murdering people for fun or whatever reason they killed for. No big deal whatsoever. You could cope with that fact. Besides, how bad could it really be any ways?

You bit the bottom corner of your lip and decided to dust off as much muck on your hoodie off as possible. First impressions were everything and everybody knew it. You just hoped that whoever this 'Slender' was, he wouldn't mind you being a little muddy and bruised from your fall earlier. You were already embarrassed enough as it was. Barging into his home, causing a possible fight between Mason and the others, and now interrupting him while he's in his own space as well. Plus, you were going to be asking him for a place to stay for the year while Jeff's friend tries to help you handle your blood lust.

You both approached the large double doors and you let go of the breath you had been holding, looking over to Mason who knocked on them. The aura surrounding the door became ever more tense and dark when you heard a loud crash and girl screeching from inside the office. You and Mason both jumped backwards when the door came flying open and you saw a flash of white and blue before landing backwards on the floor with someone on top of you. You blinked back the stars from your eyes, only to see a pair of enraged green orbs glaring down at you. 

The girls blonde hair was almost white with black streaks in it, cut jaggedly to look like spikes. No, her hair was made out of spikes that were aimed at yourself â€“ almost like scorpions - menacingly as she held you down. She let out a low growl as she leaned down closer to you. Out of the corner of your eye you could see a long, cat like tail swishing behind her and medium sized bone wings flared out to keep Mason away from helping you out of this.

"Who are you! What is so goddamn important that you had to interrupt mine and Slender's conversation! Do you even know who the hell I am! Do you! I could kill you in the most painful way possible and have your family be there to watch you go, laughing at your own self-pity and misery you- you filthy scumbag!" as she said this, her claws gripped into your wrists, drawing out purple and blue blood from your veins.

"SABRINA!"

You all turned to look at the being standing in the middle of the large wooden door frame. The creature, you couldn't even begin to explain or let alone describe the fear you felt at that moment. Everything around you froze the only sound coming from the beast in front of you and static that filled up every crevice around you it seemed. It stood tall, easily taller than the three of you put together. Its arms almost touching the ground and multiple black tentacles wriggling around behind it in anger. 

The girl froze, eyes going completely white and gently getting off of you, her head lolling to the side and mouth hanging open. You couldn't move even if you wanted to. You were completely, utterly at the mercy of the monster ahead of you.

"Silver Cross.... How many times must I tell you NOT TO ATTACK CREATURES OF THE NIGHT!?" the being shouted towards the blonde girl and gave a short bow to you. "My apologies for my child here. She can be a bit rash I suppose to new comers."

You gave a short nod, looking over to Sabrina to see her eyes showing static before she snapped out of her trance like state and growl at you, black ear like things flattening in rage before she turned swiftly and walked away from the scene. You moved forward slowly to where you were sitting up and turned to see that Mason was just staring at you in slight shock, smiling small to you from where he stood in the corner behind the beast. 

Mason then, seeing your need of help jumped into the conversation in order to save you from your sudden fear just from being in front of this...THING! This thing you had never seen before in your life and scared you to the brink of death, yet, was oddly familiar and calming the more you looked it in its' 'face'.

"Um, Slender? I would like to ask you a question if that is alright sir?" Mason coughed, clearing his throat as 'Slender' turned slightly to face him while still being bent forwards. 

Slender nodded to the blonde, signaling him to continue with his question. 

"Erm, (y/n), Jeff, and I were wondering if it would be okay for him to stay for however long it takes for him to get his, uh, bloodlust under control sort of."

Slender seemed to be thinking things over, you held your breath for the longest of times, your heart racing alongside your brain in order to get to the finish line that would be either your new safe haven, or your own private hell on earth. This house was virtually full of serial killers that would no doubt kill you if the head of the house decided not to allow your stay. 

Hell! That Sabrina chick almost did just because you unknowingly interrupted her talk with Slender. There was a constant lump in your throat that you couldn't get to go down. You kept on swallowing, but nothing seemed to help get rid of your nerves. Your hair stood on end and goosebumps made themselves known when he finally looked down at you.

"I suppose you may stay. You'll have to room with one of the members of the family until we get a room ready for you. It should be ready for you in a few days however. Until then, I suggest rooming with someone who has at least greeted you kindly."

He then returned back into his office and you could finally breathe.


	5. Migrane

FIVE

 

It was noisy, darkness having settled across the horizon while you stood off in the corner, rubbing at your arm awkwardly as everyone did their own thing. It was obvious you didn't belong there. You had only just gotten there and even if a few people somehow already knew you, you didn't know any of them. Well except maybe Jeff and Marley, BEN, Mason, and Jane, but they seemed to not really be open to newcomers just yet. Plus, the they all seemed to be busy doing their own thing at the moment.

Marley was lying across Jeff's lap reading a book, while Jeff absentmindedly stroked his fingers through her hair and typed on his phone. Ben was too preoccupied with his video games again. Mason was back downstairs in his lab. You didn't know where Jane was. And Sabrina seemed to hate you for some reason.

You were pretty sure there were others who lived here, but you hadn't met them yet. This brought your blood red eyes over to land on the dark figure off in the corner opposite you. He sat in what appeared to be a cushy recliner, thick book hanging limply in his hand over the arm of the chair as his other fist supported his head, eyes pointed directly at you. It left an unsettling feeling in the pit of your stomach, just having him constantly staring at you, as far as you could tell, that was.

To say it creeped you out was pretty much driving the nail through a cement wall; in other words, your discomfort was pretty damn obvious. You sort of just awkwardly stared back at him; arms rubbing up and down themselves around you in an attempt to bring some sort of diminish in your uneasiness.

It helped. But not as much as you would have liked.

Your eyes tried to look away, focus on something else or someone else in the room, but no matter how hard they tried, they always somehow managed to come back to the dark figure in the even darker corner. Frustration was starting to wriggle itself up into you but you held back from exploding by digging your nails into the sleeves of your hood.

That reminded you that you never packed any clothes for yourself. What with living here being a spur of the moment choice. Albeit not the best way of going about things reflecting upon the string of earlier events. You sighed, finally having found something to distract you from that figure in the corner. You turned to face away from everyone, looking out into the dark hallway and into the room across from it. And upon seeing this new room you became overwhelmed with a need to go exploring. Particularly in that closed off room your eyes were set on.

You cast a quick glance back to Jeff, Ben, and Marley before pushing off the wall and striding over to the wooden door. You figured no one would really mind you looking around. What with you having the possibility of permanent residence if things worked out well between you and Jeff's suggestion. You would have to know your way around here at some point anyways so as not to get lost while you were waiting for the trial period to be over as well.

Once you were standing before the door you tentiavly reached your hand closer towards the darkly painted brass knob with delicate and intricate detailed carvings on it. Now that you were closer to the room that lay behind the door, you could hear faint music coming from beyond the dark wooden door. It sounded soft; calming in the way a mother might whisper a song to her child in order to help them sleep at night. Your pale hand closed around the oddly heated knob, twisting it slowly and peeking your head inside, red eyes wandering over moonlit wooden flooring before widening in curiosity.

The room was practically empty, the only items inside it were a few book shelves on the walls on either side of the window with a sleek, white piano with a vase of wilting lilies and white roses on top of it. The moonlight cast long shadows across the floor, depicting a feminine figure with long hair sitting at the piano, playing each note with slow strokes of delicate fingers.

Your eyes traveled up, following the shadows to see a girl with strikingly white hair that almost reached the floor but fell short by centimeters. Her feet lay crossed over each other, swinging back and forth every now and then, but staying still for the most part. A pale blue and white lace dress fell over her knees in layers of fabric, leading up to red, blood splattered arms and hands that continued to play on the large musical instrument.

The pale female finally seemed to notice your eyes on her and looked up from the keys, slamming her hands down hard and keeping her fingertips on the keys, making a screeching note that went on and on, hurting your sensitive ears and causing you to cringe and take a heavy step back with a pained yelp. Her red eyes landed on you and she stood, rushing over to you. Even though your ears were still ringing, you could hear the faint sound of footsteps, multiple sets, rushing over to you. But all that didnâ€™t matter. It was all just background noise at the moment as images rushed in front of your eyes.

That tall mysterious man who had taken you in all those years ago. Your mothers back as she headed into those dreaded woods, abandoning you. Taking life after life after innocent life. It all filled you with such a strong emotion, you didn't know what it was you felt more of. Anger. Sadness.

Fear.

It all blended in together so well it was hard to decipher them from each other, like a pile of cords that had sat abandoned in a desk drawer for years unnoticed. And you couldn't help it when your eyes reopened, a striking violet instead of red. Couldn't help when your already sharp fangs became like needles along with the rest of your teeth. Couldn't held that your hair literally stood up on end and the shadows from the hallway slid their way over to you, only to burst out and push everyone away. You couldn't help any of it because it was all pure fucking instinct what you were doing.

You stood up shakily, having to lean over to keep your balance as you gasped for breath. Red blobs were laying on the ground all around you and you could hear and smell every ounce of that dreadfully wonderful tasting blood that coursed through them. All except for one blob, one blob that wasn't even red like the others, but a deep luscious purple. It didn't smell or sound as good as the others. It smelt and sounded like heaven. Your mouth began to water as you turned to face them. They had a darkness surrounding them and they were standing, it sent chills down your spine, in a tantalizingly good way that you had never felt or dreamt of.

You turned your whole body to face them, feeling the shadows quiver as you let out a soft moan. From the pain of being like this again, or from the pleasure of having something like them so close to you was unclear. The purple blob tilted its head to the side at you and you could tell, even in this animalistic state that you facial expression just reeked of primal want. Of a want so primal it was almost sinful. You couldn't decide whether or not you wanted to feast on them or mate with them. You just wanted to be near them so badly that it physically hurt for you to not be.

A pitiful whine escaped you and you drug your feet over the dark ground to move over to where they were. Step after step and it felt like agony the closer you got to that bliss of a purple blob. They continued to back away however and you could smell their hesitance and uncertainty over what to do. But you continued to make your way over to them until they had eventually backed themselves into a corner of shadows.

Without even thinking about it, the shadows had already reached around the purple blob to keep it in place. You let a small, pained smile grace your face and you were finally in front of them. Using their chest for support, you straightened back up and had to move your head back to look them in where you assumed their eyes to be.

"M-mate. Feed. Good. Heaven." You purred out, far too gone to be embarrassed as you rubbed up against their chest, finally able to determine it was in fact a male. That made it all the better and easier seeing as you liked being the submissive instead of being the one dominating. 

"Uh guys?" A deep, dueled voice rumbled out.

Oh god, your eyes snapped back open faster than you thought possible. How could a voice sound so much better than the scent and color of this male? You turned your head back up to look in their face and lowered your eyelids. Damn if you ever thought anything had been better than this right here. The shadows loosened their hold gradually and began to stroke and pet much like a cats tail would at the purple male.

"(Y/n)! Dude snap out of it! What the fuck is wrong with you man?! You're acting like a cat in heat!"

That voice was male, but screechy and as unattractive as an angry females in your enhanced hearing and cringed and hissed back as the owner of that voice tried to yank you away. You sunk your claws into the wall on either side of your newly found mates body so as not to hurt or be pulled away from them.

"I think he is. It looks as if he's in a feral mode from Winter slamming on the piano keys in such a close proximity to (y/n)."

And suddenly their deep, vibrating voice made you instantly relax and rub against him once more, becoming sleepy.

"Keep talking. I think it's calming (y/n) down enough to where he might go back to normal."

"What do I say? I'm not used to talking."

"Talk about that dumb book your reading."

And he did. He talked about it with as much passion as you felt for staying near him at that moment. His voice made something so boring such as history, sound so amazing that you wanted to hang on to every word just to hear his voice. But your eyelids and body wanted differently. They wanted sleep and forced you into it. The shadows gradually disappeared and you sunk lower and lower into his chest, smile growing softer and softer until you finally drifted off.

~

You were laying back down in the hospital bed you had woken up in just hours before, pretending to be asleep in order to save you the embarrassment of having to talk to everyone about what had happened. You just wanted to sink down into the pits of Hell and hide there. You were honestly surprised whoever it was sitting next to your bedside hadn't said anything about the fire that was across your nose and cheeks.

They probably thought you must have been sick or something. You certainly felt sick after all of that, not to mention that your muscles were now so worn out from strain that they couldn't stop spasming and twitching.

This had only happened to you once before that you could recall. It had happened just a few days after that man had turned you into this beast. You had forced yourself not to feed after feasting on him, forced yourself into starving because it was wrong. So, so wrong. You hated yourself. You hated him. You hated the world and its people for smelling so intoxicating that your mouth watered and your body itched to go out there and just feast. Feast. Feast. FEAST! FEAST ON THEM ALL!

After two weeks it had finally gotten to you so badly that your instincts took over, forcing you into the animalistic state.

By the time you had woken up, it had been a whole week and you were absolutely surrounded by dead bodies of every age, gender and size. Not a drop of blood to be seen of despite the carnage of the scene. It had been so horrific that you had ran out from where you had been hidden and into the woods to dry heave. After that you were forced to leave your home state for a few years so you wouldn't have the possibility of becoming captured. That had terrified you because you had never been outside of (state).Â 

Once you had turned nineteen however, nearly five years later, you chose to return in order to stop missing it so dearly. Three years had hence gone by and here you were, laying on a hospital bed for the second time in four hours, pretending to be asleep, and embarrassed at what you had done. 

"When do you think he'll wake up Mason?" Jeff's voice spoke up from beside you. You had to force yourself not to jump at the suddenness of his question however. "It's already been two hours."

"He used up a lot of his energy Jeff. Give his body some time to recoup and when it does we just won't talk about it okay? Last time this happened he was so upset he wouldn't talk to anyone for two months. And no one would talk to him after it happened because they all became so terrified that a ten year old supposed human was able to take done twenty of us with a single blow. So just- don't talk about it and act like nothing happened, alright?"

Jeff didn't respond after that and you assumed that was the end of the conversation until a third voice spoke up from the far corner of the room. It was deep and rich and slightly muffled, unlike Masons high squeaky one and Jeff's rough scratched voice.

"What do we tell him if he asks what happened then Mason? He'll get suspicious if he doesn't get an answer from somebody and the others need to know what to say before he wakes up in the next few hours, and most of the house went out after (y/n) passed out." The voice reasoned out. "It'd be easiest just to not say anything unless he asks. And if he does; tell him the truth."

You could hear someone let out a sigh and the rustling of clothes as they shifted in their spot. You felt your whole body spasm and constrict as if you were being possessed, fluttering eyes flying open and a loud gasp echoing out into the empty air. You could feel all three of them look at you and start to rush over to help, until suddenly your body slumped and your breathing escalated significantly, making terrified tears leak past your eyes and down your flushed cheeks.

"(Y/n)!?"

"J-Jeff?" You couldn't move a muscle and instead moved your eyes to focus on the black and white killer, full of fear. This had never happened before. "I don't know what's going on. I can't move no matter what I do. My body won't work. This has never happened before!"

Mason then rushed over with a syringe in his hands, the clear liquid inside sloshing around with every hurried step he took. Jeff rushed over to your side and began to move his hands frantically, trying to figure out what it was he could do to help and looking up to Mason with a frustrated expression on his face, poking through his ever present smile that scarred his face. You were panicking as well. This had never happened before. Never. So now there were two people in the room who should have known what to do, but didn't even know where to begin.

Fearful and pained tears continued to rush down from your dimming red eyes that were slowly fading to (e/c). Mason then spread two fingers out on your neck; tightening the skin in order to find a vein to plunge the needle into. As soon as he did, the pain began to dim just as the scarlet of your eyes were until it reached a dull ache. Mason's hand returned to his side and both males sighed in relief when they saw the tears slowly begin to stop and your breathing begin to regulate.

Your red rimmed (e/c) eyes made their way from gazing blankly up at the ceiling, back over towards Jeff in an almost lazy way. He looked down at you to see that your black hair was now fading to a light (h/c) from the tips up and was a knotted mess, a cold sweat spread across your forehead, and how your eyes had changed. He flickered his gaze up to Mason again.

"What the hell is going on with him, Mason?"

"I- I don't know. I've never really dealt with or studied vampires." Masons voice then dropped to a whisper you could just barely make out. "I wasn't here last time this happened."

"His body is just trying to conserve energy after going into that state. Let him rest and he'll been fine by the end of a few days."

You looked tiredly over to the corner where you had forgotten that there was somebody else in the room with the three of you. He had made his way over to you, Jeff, and Mason silently, looking down on you with empty black sockets before looking back up to Mason, an unimpressed expression clear on his grey face. Black, thick tar like tears slowly rolled down his cheeks; but you could tell he wasn't upset for some reason. He just continued to stare into your eyes, rustic brown hair just brushing over his eyebrows that had become furrowed.

You closed your eyes, swallowing harshly and with difficulty before reopening them again. Your throat was now dry and scratchy and you disliked it with a passion.

"What's going on?"

Everyone in the room turned their gaze upwards to see Marley making her way down the staircase gradually with Jane by her side, two small and long haired girls following them closely, whispering to each other excitedly.

The seventeen year old, with her glowing blue eyes, hopped over the railing on the stairs and flew over to land on the ground at your bedside. Her pale hand took yours gently as she looked over to Mason for answers. When she didn't receive any, she turned to the brunet beside her instead.

"What's going on with (y/n), Jack? Tell me what's wrong with him. Maybe I can help somehow?"

"(Y/n) just needs to rest for a few days is all Marley. Let him be." Jack crossed his arms over his chest, scowling slightly and showing a flash of sharp, white teeth.

Seeing this made you furrow your brows. Why was he getting so upset over her asking a few questions about your health? Did he not think you liked all the attention or something? You didn't exactly like it, but you didn't want people to just ignore you either.

"H-hey Marley." You greeted with a small smile. "I didn't worry everyone or hurt anybody did I?"

"No no! Of course you didn't (y/n)! You just shocked a few of the guys was all. Just a few little bruises. But we know you didn't mean it and they'll fade in a few hours."

You slowly nodded to her reply, looking down at the thin bedsheets that covered your legs. "That's- That's good. I don't want to hurt you guys. You guys seem nice, you don't deserve to get hurt."

"(Y/n) if you knew what we do- you wouldn't be saying that. We kill people." Jane cut in, going over to stand beside Mason.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why? What's your reason for killing people?" You expanded on your question for her.

"Its... It's different for each of us." Jane began to mess with the skin around her nails almost nervously. "I used to kill for revenge because of what happened to me, but I stopped a while ago. I don't have anyone left that I need to kill." She shrugged afterwards. "The others kill for their own reasons."

You nodded tiredly at this as your eyelids began to droop. You wanted to continue to ask questions like what were the guys talking about earlier while you were 'unconscious' and what everyone knew about your past. So you tried to hold sleep off for as long as you could. But your eyes and mind eventually won out and you drifted fitfully off to sleep.


	6. Headache's

SIX

 

"I'll be back shortly alright sweetie? You need to promise mommy that you won't move from this spot. Can you do that for mommy?" someone asked in a panicked tone.

It was a sweet voice, one you vaguely recognized from somewhere. It brought forth images of red hair, pale pink lips smiling at you with a look only a mother could give, and eyes so blue you could only think of Jeff's face smirking at you from beyond the shade of his hood.

Where had you heard that voice before? You knew you had. But where?

You nodded in agreement, the rest of the scene fading into view.

Cars continued to pass behind the two of you, making it almost impossible to hear her voice again. Chilled wind whipped past the two of you, dragging your scarf into your face and bluffing out most of her face with strands of shiny red hair. Fall leaves barely hung onto the dead trees as snow hit them, trying to weigh them down to the ground below.

It was just how you had remembered it.

"Good." She said after a moment of gazing into your (e/c) orbs. She almost seemed sad in the way she had bitten the corner of her pale lip. "Mommy will be right back, okay? You just need to stay here with the car, and not let anyone see you. I love you sweetie."

"I love you too mommy!"

~

You launched upwards in bed, a cold-sweat soaking your body and making your hair stick to your forehead as you gulped in gasps of air. A dreadful panic was coursing through your veins, making you unable to allow the air you were intaking settle into your lungs fully before exhaling. It was a fucking panic attack - something you hadn't had since the last time you had gone animalistic on someone due to something that you couldn't quite place just yet. But knowing that did little to nothing to help calm you down.

You needed space and something to drive all the shadows in the room away. But needing something was different compared to actually getting something.

Upon feeling your fear the shadows were drawing closer to you like a deathly loyal companion. It twisted and coiled around you, damn near suffocating you to death with it's thick coils of inky blackness that literally drew itself into your veins and airway. It was trying to comfort you the only way it knew how, by consuming you into itself as it only knew how to do one thing properly and that one thing was protect itself. If you were a part of it, it could protect you.

Your airways tightened as the shadows moved inside you as one, cutting off airflow to every part of your body. Your senses heightened; you could feel the shadows silkiness as it swarmed over you, smell that you were in a room filled with plastic blood-bags and different scented candles, taste the sweet bitterness that was pure darkness, and see every past torture it had caused on others in the reflection of their eyes buried deep within its memory.

Seeing such horrors only added to your current terror - leading up to the only logical thing you could think of.

You gathered enough panicked strength to force the shadows to burst out of you at once and belt out a scream loud enough for the mirror on your wall to rattle off and crash to the floor with a bang before being consumed into a tight ball of darkness.

The door to the room banged open and a stream of warm and yellow light came flooding in, burning the shadows enough to lessen its hold around you. You could hear multiple sets of feet rushing over to you, only for them to be hissed at by the shadows who were trying to reform around you. You were losing air quickly, unable to stay awake and only able to moan out in distress.

A cold hand pushed it way through and pulled you out quickly with enough force to nearly shatter your wrist. You fell into whoever it was and landed in a heap on the ground. You panted for breath, gripping onto whomever it was nightshirt for some form of stability as the darkness gave one last loud hiss before returning back to the corners of the room as they should be.

"(Y/n) are you okay?"

It was Jeff. It was Jeff and you could smell the metallic and pine scent that was him and you were calming down finally. You sniffed in through your nose, just now noticing the fat tears running down your flushed cheeks. You couldn't speak so you nodded against his chest instead in affirmation to your well-being.

You could hear someone shuffle their feet at the doorway, making their way over to where you could hear a third heart beat - this one going slower than Jeff's, but pumping more often than the female's heart was - and smell something like that of cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer.

"What happened to him Jeff?" Marley's sleep-soaked voice asked from beside who you guessed to be Mason.

Jeff brushed his leathery and calloused hand through your hair in a comforting motion as he pulled you into his lap and rocked slowly to help you calm down further.

"I think he had a panic attack or something and lost control of whatever the fuck those things are like he did earlier." he responded to her.

Seeming to have satisfied the two's curiosity, both left the room and shut the door behind them after Jeff confirmed he was staying with you for your first night.

He then began to speak quietly to you so that any prying ears wouldn't hear but yours.

"You're alright now (Y/n). I won't let anything harm you while you're living here okay? I know how shitty panic attacks can be myself. They're fucking shit man. They make you feel helpless, like you're gonna die or some shit. But they come and go just like that dude. So long as you remember to breathe and know that whatever you're seeing isn't real, you'll get through it."

You didn't say anything and you didn't think you could after how shaken up you were after all of that. You wanted to go back to your home in the warehouse near the city. Back where you had piles upon piles of different fabrics to keep all the slithering shadows further at bay and a surround sound system hooked up to play calming noises and hear the rain splatter softly on the broken roof above you while you slept peacefully. It was only your first night here, and already you were terrified of so many different things; the people, all the smells, all the sounds. It was all too much too soon.

Jeff stroked up and down your back, continuing to talk quietly while you set your head against his chest as it rumbled and rasped with each word he spoke through forever dried out lungs.

~

You woke up to Jeff shaking your shoulder and saying something about needing to pee and being hungry - which once you woke up as well realized you needed to as well. Telling him to hurry up so you could go, you yawned and stretched enough off of him to get up from the sitting against the wall and head towards the bathroom. After he left you looked around on the ground near you for your hoodie, grabbing it and putting it back on. After years of sleeping pretty much outside you realized you had a tendency to shuck any outerwear you wore to bed in the middle of the night for some reason.

The floor out in the hall was cold against your feet as you shuffled outside the doorway to wait outside the bathroom door against the wall, wearing a pair of loose boxers and t-shirt beneath your black hood. You knew your hair must've been a mess and you more than likely had dark circles under your eyes after a near restless night of sleep once again. You crossed your arms over your chest, using the excess sleeves to cover your hands as you rubbed them up and down due to it being oddly cold outside the - what you assumed to be a bedroom or guest room of some sort.

"All yours dude. I'll see you downstairs for breakfast alright?"

You nodded and watched as Jeff went down the stairs at the end of the hall before ducking into the two piece bathroom in order to relieve your bladder for the morning. The inside of it was medium sized with a white tiled shower against the wall and a half wall to separate it from the toilet. It was covered in a peach painted textured-wallpaper that moved in swirls to match the twin counter filled with toothbrushes and makeup supplies and hair styling tools.

You quickly used the toilet, washed your hands and dried them, opening the door and ducking out once again only to run straight into Mason. He caught you just below your shoulders and steadied the two of you, chuckling out quietly.

"(Y/n)! Hey, how are you settling in? Did you see the toothbrush I set out for you? I didn't know what your favorite color was, so I just gave you one of Marley's extras. Don't worry about it though. She's got too many of them anyways stashed away in her drawer - all purple too-"

"Oh, um- thanks Mason. You didn't need to. I was planning on heading back home to pick up some of my things anyways later on today." you said, fiddling with your sleeves.

You had never been a very social person, always preferring to just have a few quick conversations with people and then being on your merry way. You had never dealt with anyone - besides your own mother and that man that had cared for you for a few years that you couldn't seem to remember very well - for more than a few hours. So having to be around so many people for so long and having to answer so many questions seemingly one after the other to you was beginning to have its toll on you.

You may have been smiling, but you were still shaking as you spoke.

"Well, I really need to take a piss so I'm just gonna squeeze past you and see you downstairs dude."

You nodded at him as he did just that and went down the staircase after putting on your pants from the day before seeing as you didn't have any other clothes here yet. You followed the scent of food radiating from the front of the house and ended up in a large dining room, filled with a large wooden table and chairs with placemats in front of them. Jeff and Jack were sat next to each other - Jeff with some orange juice and Jack with some water to sip at as they talked quietly to themselves. You walked over nervously and took the empty seat next to Jeff seeing as you knew him better than you did Jack.

Jeff turned around to face you quickly and smiled as Jack nodded in your direction acknowledging. They went back to their conversation, more of the houses residents flowing in in their respective sleeping wear. Jane sat beside you with a warm smile on her face - much to Jeff's dismay - and Marley sat down across from her with Sabrina at her side. The three of them seemed to be particularly close, and they each smelt faintly of each other in a way that made you think they must be a very touchy-feely group of friends.

"Hey (Y/n), just checking in to see how you're feeling. Sleep well at all last night?" Marley spoke to you in a whisper from her seat, smiling gently and eyes slightly hazy from sleep.

You gave a small smile in return, blushing and looking down at the sleeves of your hoodie once again in an attempt to end the conversation there. Of course it wouldn't be however, knowing your luck. You brought a hand up to tap idly at the wooden surface of the table as a way to distract yourself. You had no idea how meals worked around here, but seeing as everyone was just sitting around and chatting with each other you were left to assume someone was making all the food and was planning on serving it out to everyone once they were done.

You could feel the shadows licking at your exposed wrists and wriggling into the palm of your hands. You twisted your hands upwards, allowing them to do so and feeling them squirm around happily, nudging at your fingers to show its happiness at the attention. You smiled minutely down at the inky coils that felt like fine, cold sand in your hand.

The shadows had not always been something you had a strange relationship with. You could remember a time where these same shadows terrified you and was aggressive towards you as a small child. You remembered cowering in the middle of your room in the middle of some particularly dark nights with thunderstorms raging on against your window in the background. You could clearly recall them slowly making their way towards you and hearing the terrified squeals and shrieks of too many voices, screeching for your mother to come rescue you before they could strike.

~

After you had finished breakfast, you went to the living room and sat around awkwardly waiting for Jeff to finish up with eating his own breakfast. Normally you would've left the premises by now to avoid cops or someone else unwanted from discovering your last meal and headed back home, but now you were here and you didn't know whether you needed to tell someone or not that you wanted to go out and pick up a few things from the warehouse. So you sat there on one of the multiple large couches, waiting for the older and taller male to come out from the dining room.

"Why so nervous dude?"

You jumped upon hearing the voice, looking up from where you sat messing with your sleeves once again. You expected it to be Jeff - had hoped it was actually - but was met with BEN standing off to the side and looking at you with his brows furrowed. You laughed awkwardly, shuffling your socked feet against each other on the floor below.

"I- I uh I wanted to go back to my place and pick up a few things, but I didn't know if I needed to let anyone know before leaving or not." you replied to the elfish teen.

"Dude, you can leave whenever the hell you want for however long you want. No one really cares all that much - as long as we all come back breathing that is." BEN shrugged in answer to you, going over and flopping down a few cushions down from you and starting up one of his games on the large tv.

You stood then and shuffled over to stand near where he sat, still awkwardly fiddling with your sleeves. "If I left for a few hours to grab some things, would you mind letting Jeff know if he asks for me?"

"Sure dude."


	7. Awake

SEVEN

 

A few hours had gone by the time you finally decided you should start heading back to the house. It was nearly dark out, which was good considering it hurt the shadows and they were dragging along anything you couldn't carry comfortably within them behind you. The sun was setting, different colored streams of light beaming themselves onto you with a weakened intensity just enough to tell they were there. The shadows could be heard weaving in and out between bushes and trees and you smiled to yourself. It hadn't taken you long to gather everything in all honesty - only around twenty minutes or so.

But you had decided you needed a break from everyone and sat around for most of the day, watching and playing video games on your tv from the giant pile of clothes and blankets you had amassed over the years. You had listened to the sounds that all the animals in the surrounding area had emitted while staring up at the blue sky through the giant hole in the roof. You watched the clouds and birds fly by, and once the sun was overhead you moved back to your bed and napped for awhile with a few small shadows circling around your makeshift bed slowly in a calming manner.

You would have liked to stay there all day, but you knew Jeff would become antsy and possibly tear the house apart if you did so despite having only known him for a total a few hours. Of which the two of you had hardly talked at all. You let out a sigh through your nose, staring down at the ground and watching as you destroyed fallen leaves beneath your booted feet. You had always enjoyed cold days such as these even before the sun hurt you to be out in. You could still faintly remember days sitting at a window, watching snow fall and the sun set over a frozen river, faint noises of people shouting and laughing from somewhere deeper into the house.

You stepped up onto the shaded front steps, hearing them creak in protest as you motioned for the shadows to go ahead and take your stuff up to your temporary room you would be staying in until you got one of your own. They did as instructed and you opened the front door, instantly assaulted by all the different smells of everyone in the home. You breathed in deeply, tapping the front end of your boots to shake any dirt off onto the rug beneath you so you wouldn't track it any further inside. After doing so you went to head up the stairs to put your things where you would like them, only to be stopped by none other than Jeff who was stomping his way down the stairs.

"(Y/n)! There you are! I've been wondering where you were all day." he stated, taking the last step and placing an arm over your shoulders.

You scrunch your eyebrows together, thinking back to earlier this morning. "I thought I told BEN to tell you I was heading back out to my place for my stuff? Didn't he tell you?"

Jeff's eyes widened slightly, obviously having no idea of any of this. He shook his head at you and then turned to where you guessed BEN was at in the front living room with an angry scowl upon his face once again within barely five minutes of you being back. "No, he didn't tell me that actually."

He brushed past you, heading swiftly to the entrance to the living room that video game noises could be heard coming from. You rushed off behind him, curious as to what Jeff was going to do. He rounded the corner with you basically already at his heels to see BEN sitting in the same spot as last night when you first saw him upon arrival, playing another video game on the large tv screen. The blonde didn't seem to hear either of you as he continued to mash at buttons on his controller. Jeff's scowl deepened and he marched to be in front of the elf dressed in a green Legend of Zelda t shirt and some black cargo shorts, his green hat barely hanging onto his disheveled head.

"Did you forget to tell me something this morning BEN? Something (Y/n) asked you to do for him?"

The blonde paused his game after a moment, letting out what was an obviously annoyed sigh and you shifted from side-to-side awkwardly. Conflict had never really been something you were very experienced with. You didn't like it and it made you feel all weird inside when you were around people who were arguing. It didn't bring up any bad memories per-say, more like glimpses of feelings from somewhere. Almost like someone was just scrolling through their camera roll quickly and you could only see flashes of smiles and messy, wind-blown hair and maybe a beach in the background.

Except it wasn't pleasant pictures you were being flashed. They were all grainy and old, photos taken from a crime scene after a particularly bad domestic incident with clips of screaming and yelling being played in the background just for the hell of it all.

You could hear the two of them yelling at each other but it all sounded as if you were hearing it through fifty pounds worth of cotton shoved in your ears. It was far away and muted. Almost everything about you felt weightless and you realized what you were doing subconsciously. You didn't bother stopping it though, just allowing yourself to float around in whatever headspace this was while your body moved down the halls on its own. Furniture was moving past you in those weird wispy blurs that looked like still frames taken when a child was in the middle of running past them.

A hand landed on your shoulder and whoever it belonged to twisted you back around to face them. You heard yourself let out a groan from miles away and saw your hand come rushing up to grip your head to try and ground yourself. Were you actually moving that fast out in the real world, or were you just so out of it everything you did looked like it was going fast?  
  
**"** **(Y/n)? Do you know what's going on between BEN and Jeff?"**

You saw a grey face and dark eyes looking down at you, their eyebrows scrunched up in- something. What was that emotion called again?

"Wh-who?" was all you could mumble out, mouth feeling heavy and unfocused beyond belief.

They shook you by your shoulders and you felt a name roll past that was too hazy at the moment to really process. You were hungry. And really thirsty too. Why did everything smell like sweet and salty copper all of a sudden? Why was the world spinning?  
  
**"** **Have you had anything to eat at all today (Y/n)?"** the smooth, dual-voice Â of that person asked of you and you found yourself blinking up at them.

You scrunched your face up, twisting it and trying to will yourself to answer and make sense this time. It took a few moments that felt like hours but you somehow managed it. "J-Jack? No- not enough- time."

You heard him sigh and felt him drag you off somewhere, pushing you down into a chair and going into the adjoined kitchen through the door. Your vision was starting to go fuzzy and swim and there was a bit of black at the edge of your eyes. Everything was starting to get a faint colored outline and there was this purple-ish blue aura surrounding Jack to where he almost blended in with all the furniture.

He came back through the swinging door and set a heavy plastic cup in front of you. It was blue and the liquid that lazily sloshed around inside made it look a deep purple with the edges tinted a darker shade of red. It smelt weird, but in a good way that somehow made your stomach roll in nausea. You didn't want to drink whatever it was, but Jack continued to push it closer towards you.

"Sick."  
  
**"** **You only feel sick because you haven't eaten since you've been here... as far as we know. That's at least a week."** he was starting to sound a bit agitated and you supposed all the yelling in the background wasn't helping with that. **"** **Drink it, (Y/n)."**  
  
He wasn't going to leave you alone until you did, even in whatever the hell kind of state you were in right now you could hear the unrelenting stubbornness in his voice. He was staring you down as if he was trying to pull a Jedi mind trick to make you drink it. And you would have moved faster in doing so, if not for your arm shaking and your stomach rolling from just the thought and smell of the food alone. But you did it, and that's all that really mattered to Jack because as soon as you started gulping it down the air around you relaxed.

You stopped feeling sick and your throat began to burn with the need for more. You slammed the cup back down onto the table without meaning to and Jack pulled out a bag of blood. He gently ripped the top of it off and slowly poured it into your glass, a more relaxed expression on his face. He was hyper focused on not spilling any of it on the table and you could appreciate that to some degree. Jack must hold a high respect for Slender. That or he really liked clean furniture.

"Thank you- for getting me to drink that even though I didn't want to."

He gave a small shrug in response, eyebrows furrowing further in his concentration. "t's no problem. It's my job to help care for everyone in the household along with Mason and Dr. Smiley. There's a lot of us living here so there's bound to be medical emergencies. I just happen to be the one there to witness them majority of the time."

His voice no longer had that same intensity to it that had been there before. The one that had caused something to stir in you. It made you feel calm and the kind of crazy you got only when you'd been animalistic. It was confusing as to why you felt like that, but you chose to ignore it. You'd find the answers out eventually when you were feeling like you were at one hundred percent once again.

"Do you ever just get to sit down and relax like the rest of them?" you would have said us, but you didn't feel apart of them yet.

It felt too soon to be that inclusive with these people, with this _family_ unit.

"I do. I just don't usually do it up here where everyone can see me and bother me about stuff," he slid the drink back over to you and you caught it whilst still looking up at him. "I'm usually down in my lab reading, cleaning, or experimenting with stuff. You should come down if you ever want a quiet place to escape everything. That way you don't have to trek nearly ten miles to go to some abandoned warehouse."

"Oh- uh thank you, Jack. I'll keep that in mind." your face heated at that and his face showed the barest twitch of a smile before he walked out of the room.

You stared down into the cup, watching the red liquid slowly spin around the edge of it. Jack may not have spoken to you much, but he had been there while you were in Mason's lab and when you had freaked out on everyone. He was smart - that much you were certain about and he was quiet and kept to himself for the most part.

He smelled like old books, ink, blood, and bleach. Very different from Jeff who smelled of lavender, pine, musk and blood. Jeff, he was the one who brought you here and continued to follow you. He worried about where you had been all day and wanted to help you. Help you with what though? And why? You didn't understand why it was these people wanted to help you. Why they treated you so - so well, as if you were already apart of their family.

You stood from where you sat at the table and made your way back out to the main living room, heading towards the stairs in order to see what the shadows had done with your things. You placed a hand on the iron railing, looking out to see Jeff grumbling to himself in what you guessed was his spot on the couch. BEN was not too far from him - only a few cushions down - and being chewed out by Jack. You smiled to yourself at that. These beings truly did act like a family. It was strange and you didn't really understand it, seeing as you barely remembered ever having a family, but it was - nice, in a way.

You quietly made your way up the stairs.


End file.
